San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1887-06-09
NO. Is.


fOld Wltnln the ihbJ ntil century, uuu
that the injury TO society has been
correspondingly great. What shall
government doY Give up the con-
test and leave the people without
protection against the trafic that
hangs Grape atsovery door and threat
ems rum to. every family in the state
OF Texasl
We have made laws punlshing men
for getting drunk, providing for
guardians for drunkards, ETC., etc.
All have failed, and the unavoidable
necessity is forced upon the people
to employ other measures and try.
and try again.
The argament by the antis that
prohibition curtails the revenues OF
government, needs but a moments
thought and "A plain statement of
facts. Annually the people of Texas
exchange horses, COWS, cotton and
wealth in other forms, to the amount
OF millions of dollars for intoxicating
liquors. The liquors are consumed
and utterly lost to society, except in
their baneful effects upon it, and the
cotton and other things given in ex-
change for these liquors go to Ken
tncky and elsewhere, and are lost to
the state OF Texas. The liquors add
nothing to our wealth, and the plain,
simple fact is, that the state sustains
an absolute loss in the property or
wealth exchanged, except such part
as has been used for medicinal, sacra-
mental and scientific purposes. !
leave to Others the task OF showing
how state gains in her revenues by
the diminutlon of her wealth.
Another point made by the anti
prohibitionists is that the amend
ment will interfere with our grape
culture. The shallowness OF this
pretense is shown by reference to
the amendment itself, for it expressly
excerpts the manufacture, sale and ex-
change for medicinal, scientific anG
sacramental purposes, thus leaving
the culture OF grape and the manu-
facture of Intoxicating liquors to the
wisdom Of the Legislature, in harmony
with the spirit and purpose OF the
amendment.
Our domestic demand for these
excepted purposes, will a long ways
exceed domestic manufacture and
production.
Another point made by the antis is
that the amendment is in favor Of the
rich against the poor. This certainly
touches the boundary Of Christian
patience. Think of it for moment.
Whisky keeps the millions poor It
enslaves the laboiing man. Il aggre-
gates wealth, and yet there are they
who say to the poor man, this hurts
you, takes away your rights, but
leaves the rich man the privilege to
import. Has not the poor man the
same right to impor2 Does the
amendment say q word about the
rich or poor2 Does it treat Of class9
II the rich man be left free to spend
his money and wealth for whisky
and riotous living, and the poor man
be denied the opportunity Of spend
ing the products of his labor in the
same way, the inevitable sequence is
that they will soon changs places,
and the industrious, economic, sober,
laboring poor, and their children.
will become the nabobs Of the land,
while the rich and their children,
from dissipation, viii become their
servants.
"Vultures covering to devour."
The man who appeals to the poor
and attempts by plying class preju-
dice, in this great contest, as means
of arraying the poor against them
selves, can have but little sympathy
with the poor. Liquor is the great
enemy of the poor. 1t keeps them
poor. The laboring and poorer cas-
ses in the United States pay, annually,
not less than FIVE hundred millions OF
dollars for alcoholic drinks; hence
strikes. pinching poverty, squalid
wretchedness throughout the land
The time and money madly, fool,
ishly paid by the laboring and poorer
classes for liquor, If properly and
wisely utilized in the interest of those
who pay it. the so-cllled poor and
laboring classes would, to day, in the
United States, place them in better
condition than such classes ever have
occupied in this or any other country,
or any other time or age.
In a word, prohibition is a move
ment quick with the spirit Of progress
and civilization, raising the lower TO
higher planes OF life. This is, indeed.
the great cause OF humanity.